Junk Fujiyama -- Hoshikuzu no Pipeline （星屑のパイプライン）

Junk Fujiyama（ジャンクフジヤマ）was a name I've heard before.... strangely enough, right here in Toronto. As part of our cable TV service, we get several stations which basically act as video radio specializing in specific genres. I heard Junk on the Asian Music channel once and thought his music was very nice but didn't really go into the research about him.

Then, yesterday, my anime buddy and I got together again for another round of viewings. One of our must-sees has been the wild-&-crazy "Space Dandy". I've become a fan of the opening theme of the funkalistic "Viva Namida" by Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）and I'll probably be writing about the ending theme by Etsuko Yakushimaru（やくしまるえつこ）pretty soon as well.

However, my buddy told me beforehand about this tune that starts up at the finale of Episode 6. As has been the case with most of the shows for "Space Dandy", the plot is nuts, but my friend told me that the song was by Junk Fujiyama, who basically set out to croon in the style of Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）back in his City Pop days of the late 70s and early 80s.

Junk's tribute to Tats in what I found out was titled "Hoshikuzu no Pipeline" (Stardust Pipeline) is a smooth and summery and oh-so-nice song. It fits the surprisingly simply big-hearted scene of the main character surfing away through the space waves after trying and failing to avert the tragicomic demise of two hardened enemies. My ears and eyes are now fully alert to the Junk. I did a bit of digging and the song has just come out and included as a new track on "The Best of Junk Fujiyama" which came out on January 22, 2014.

According to his bio on J-Wiki, Junk Fujiyama was born as Naofumi Fujiki（藤木直史） in 1983 and is a singer-songwriter/guitarist who can go into rock, soul and jazz....and do his Tatsuro Yamashita thing, so City Pop as well. It's nice to see that genre slide back in a bit, and the design for the cover for his BEST album brings back memories of those times as well. I'm sorely tempted to dish out the yen for this one.